Slaughter was just two weeks away from his 38^th birthday, and the Cardinals were two days away from opening their season against the Cubs when they finalized the deal that sent Slaughter to New York for Bill Virdon, Mel Wright, and outfield prospect Emil Tellinger.

Commonly referred to as “Country” but also known affectionately as “the Old Warhorse,” Slaughter had been the franchise’s last tie to the spirit of the Gashouse Gang, though he didn’t make his big-league debut until 1938. Since then, however, Slaughter had personified the rough and tumble style of the Redbirds while emerging as one of the league’s best – and toughest – players.

Slaughter enjoyed arguably the best season of his career as a 26-year-old in 1942, when he led the league with 188 hits. With a .318 batting average, 31 doubles, 13 homers, and 98 RBIs, Slaughter led all of baseball with 17 triples and topped the Senior Circuit with 292 total bases. He finished second to teammate Mort Cooper in that year’s NL MVP voting, and in the World Series he went 5-for-19 with a double, home run, and two RBIs.

After the Cardinals won the World Series, Slaughter enlisted in the U.S. Air Force, where he became a sergeant and served as a physical education instructor. When he returned to the Cardinals in 1946, he hadn’t missed a beat. Now 30 years old, he hit .300 with 18 homers and a league-high 130 RBIs.

Once again, the Cardinals reached the World Series – this time after tying the Dodgers for the pennant and winning a three-game series to qualify for the World Series. Slaughter went 8-for-25 with a double, triple, home run, and two RBIs in the World Series and his “mad dash” home to win Game 7 earned a permanent place in baseball history.

Though Slaughter and the Cardinals were unable to win another NL pennant together, the now-veteran star continued to impress, batting .321 and finishing seventh in the MVP vote in 1948, then hitting .336 and finishing third in the balloting in 1949.

In 1952, he hit .300 and drove in 101 runs to finish sixth in the MVP race, and in his final season with the Cardinals, at age 37, he continued to defy Father Time, batting .291 and driving in 89 runs. In fact, on the same day the trade was announced, a story appeared in the St. Louis Globe-Democrat in which Tom Henrich, former outfielder and now a telecaster in New York, said, “They say baseball is a young man’s game, but look at that Slaughter. He was pitching for Little Rock when I was playing for New Orleans and they called him a veteran then. No, sir, it’s not a young man’s game altogether.”[1]

Coming off an 83-71-3 season in which they finished third in the National League, however, the Cardinals were inclined to disagree. With rookie Wally Moon ready to make his big-league debut, manager Eddie Stanky preferred to go with an outfield of Rip Repulski, Moon, and Stan Musial, and he knew that the proud Slaughter would chafe at playing a reserve role.

“A player like Slaughter just can’t stand sitting on a bench and, while I’m not trying to put myself on a pedestal by comparing myself with him, I couldn’t stand it either,” Stanky said.[2]

Indeed, Bob Broeg of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that the Cardinals’ captain had already noticed his decreased playing time during spring training, and while he had not said anything directly to Stanky, he “had made no secret of his displeasure within earshot of reporters.”[3]

“I signed a contract to play,” Slaughter said.[4]

Slaughter was informed of the trade during the Cardinals’ spring training game against the Orioles. General manager Dick Meyer asked Slaughter to put on his street clothes and then come to his office on Dodier Street. When Slaughter arrived, Meyer broke the news.

“The Old Warhorse, seated with hands on his knees, nervously folding and unfolding a handkerchief, still was sobbing when reporters, who had been handed mimeographed copies of (team president August A.) Busch’s announcement and newcomer Wright’s record a few minutes after the game ended, walked into Meyer’s office,” the Post-Dispatch reported.[5]

“It’s the greatest shock I ever had in my life,” Slaughter said several times, occasionally dropping his voice to a whisper. “To think that I spent nearly all my life with this organization, and then they trade me after I’ve given them everything I got.”[6]

Though Slaughter was clearly still stunned by the news, he soon regained his competitive fire.

“I thought I could help them to a pennant this time, and if some other guys hustled as much as I did, they’d make it,” he said. “But you can tell ‘em in New York I’ll give ‘em 100 percent just as I did the Cardinal organization.”[7]

Stanky announced to the assembled media that second baseman Red Schoendienst would replace Slaughter as the Cardinals’ new captain,[8] and Meyer told reporters that whenever Slaughter decided to call it a career, he would be welcomed back to the organization.

“I don’t think he’s ready to quit now, but I’ll say this – the door here would be wide open,” Meyer said.[9]

In a prepared statement, Busch wrote that the move gave the Cardinals a chance to give Moon an opportunity for playing time while strengthening the team’s prospect pool.

“We have just traded one of the greatest players in the history of the Cardinals,” Busch said. “Personally, this has been one of the toughest decisions I have ever had to participate in. Enos Slaughter has been ‘Mr. Baseball’ for almost 20 years. Fans in every part of the country have been thrilled by his aggressiveness and determination. The term ‘hustle’ was practically coined for him. Slaughter is a champion all the way, and it is fitting that he joins the world champion New York Yankees.”[10]

“This is the toughest part of my job as manager, but a championship ball player is going to a championship ball club,” Stanky said. “We feel we have good young outfielders, and if we have Enos around, we won’t play those young players.”[11]

Meanwhile, the Yankees were delighted to add Slaughter as a bench bat to a team that already had Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, Hank Bauer, Joe Collins, and Andy Carey.

“We gave up nothing that could help us this year in return for someone who is sure to help us a lot,” Yankees co-owner Del Webb said.[12]

“He’s an excellent man to have on the bench and should be very useful for pinch-hitting duties,” one Yankees official said. “Besides, he gives us protection in case Mantle’s knee doesn’t come around too quickly.”[13]

In St. Louis, the trade was met with anger and disgust.

“Cardinal fans probably are more indignant over the departure of Slaughter than they have been over any deal since Rogers Hornsby was traded to the Giants for Frankie Frisch and Jimmy Ring after the 1926 season,” J. Roy Stockton wrote in the Post-Dispatch.[14]

In the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, Robert L. Burnes explained that, “Enos Slaughter was more than a ballplayer, as any Cardinal fan could tell you. He was an institution – not only among the fans, but among the players as well. To be trite again, Enos was the ball players’ ball player. He played the game the way it should be played.”[15]

As the player tabbed to replace Slaughter, nobody felt the pressure more than Moon. As he stepped to the plate for his big-league at-bat, the hometown crowd at Sportsman’s Park booed the 24-year-old mercilessly.

“What should have been one of the best days of my life, April 13, 1954, was turning out to be one of the worst,” Moon wrote in 2010. “As I stepped to the plate for my first major league at-bat in the home half of the first inning of the first game of the new season, I was greeted with a torrent of verbal castigation and denunciation from seemingly every corner of the park.”[16]

Incredibly, Moon responded by hitting a solo home run over the right-field wall, becoming just the second Cardinal to hit a home run in his first major-league at-bat. It was the beginning of a Rookie of the Year-winning campaign for Moon, who hit .304 with 12 homers, 76 RBIs, and 18 stolen bases. Moon went on to play five seasons with the Cardinals before he was traded to the Dodgers, where he became famous for his “Moon shots” over the high screen just 251 feet down the left-field line at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

Slaughter hit .248 with a home run and 19 RBIs for the Yankees in 1954 and was traded to the Athletics after just nine at-bats in 1955. At the time, the owners of the Yankees and A’s were friends, and the A’s essentially functioned as another farm team for the Yankees. Playing regularly once again, Slaughter hit .322 with five homers and 34 RBIs.

In 1956, the A’s traded him back to the Yankees, allowing him to win his third and fourth career World Series rings with the Bronx Bombers in both ’56 and ’58. In Game 3 of the 1956 World Series, Slaughter hit a key three-run homer to lift New York to a 5-3 win.

The Yankees released Slaughter in 1959, and he played the final games of his career with the Braves before retiring after 19 big-league seasons. In 1985, Slaughter was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, and in 1996, the Cardinals retired his number 9.

Virdon went on to win the Rookie of the Year trophy in 1955, batting .281 with 17 homers and 68 RBIs. In 1956, the Cardinals traded Virdon to the Pirates for Bobby Del Greco and Dick Littlefield. Virdon went on to play in 1,583 games and bat .267 across a 12-year major-league career.

Wright pitched two big-league seasons for the Cardinals, going 2-2 with a 7.14 ERA across 46 23/ innings.

Tellinger spent just one season in the Cardinals’ system and never reached the majors.

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[1] Robert L. Burnes, “The Bench Warmer,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, April 11, 1954.

[2] Bob Broeg, “Trade of Slaughter Puts Rookie Moon and Cardinal Office on Spot,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 12, 1954.

[3] Bob Broeg, “Trade of Slaughter Puts Rookie Moon and Cardinal Office on Spot,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 12, 1954.

[4] Bob Broeg, “Trade of Slaughter Puts Rookie Moon and Cardinal Office on Spot,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 12, 1954.

[5] “Yanks Sought Enos in Raschi Deal; Cards Reopened Case,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 12, 1954.

[6] “Yanks Sought Enos in Raschi Deal; Cards Reopened Case,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 12, 1954.

[7] “Yanks Sought Enos in Raschi Deal; Cards Reopened Case,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 12, 1954.

[8] “Yanks Sought Enos in Raschi Deal; Cards Reopened Case,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 12, 1954.

[9] “Enos May Return To Cards Some Day,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 12, 1954.

[10] “Busch Says Slaughter Deal Will Give Rookies a Chance,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, April 12, 1954.

[11] “Yanks Sought Enos in Raschi Deal; Cards Reopened Case,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 12, 1954.

[12] Hy Turkin, “Yanks Get Enos Slaughter,” New York Daily News, April 12, 1954.

[13] “‘Good Deal for Us, We Gave Up Practically Nothing,’ Says Webb,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 12, 1954.

[14] J. Roy Stockton, “Extra Innings,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 12, 1954.

[15] Robert L. Burnes, “The Bench Warmer,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, April 13, 1954.

[16] Wally Moon with Tim Gregg (2010), Moon Shots: Reflections on a Baseball Life, Rhesa Moon Enterprises, Page 1.

The post Enos Slaughter: Cardinals-Yankees 1954 Trade first appeared on STLRedbirds.com.

“Enos Slaughter’s great gallop from first to score on a blow to left center will rate with Paul Revere’s ride in the history of our country, and the picture of the stocky, feather-footed outfielder rounding third as Coach Mike Gonzalez waved him on, almost frantically, long will be cherished by the thrill-limp fans who saw it,” the Associated Press wrote in the next day’s newspapers.[1]

Played on October 15, 1946, Game 7 of that year’s World Series was the culmination of a campaign that saw the Cardinals and Dodgers tie for the National League pennant. In the ensuing best-of-three playoff series (the first in major league history), the Cardinals defeated the Dodgers 4-2 and 8-4, earning the right to meet the 104-win Red Sox in the World Series.

The two league champions traded wins through the first six games of the series. Slaughter, who hit .300 with 18 homers and 130 RBIs in his first season since missing three years due to his service in World War II, entered Game 7 with a .318 average through the first six games. He very nearly didn’t make it to Game 7.

After Boston’s Joe Dobson hit him with a pitch on the right elbow in Game 5, Slaughter was in significant pain. On the train ride back to St. Louis, the team doctor told the right fielder that the injury would keep him out of the lineup for the remainder of the World Series. Slaughter overruled the doctor’s advice.

“I ain’t gonna do it,” he declared. “The fellers need me. No matter what you say, I’m playin’.”[2]

On the heels of the Cardinals’ 4-1 victory in Game 6, the Cardinals sent Murry Dickson to the mound to match up against Boston’s Dave Ferriss. The 29-year-old Dickson had gone 15-6 during the regular season, posting a 2.88 ERA after missing the previous two seasons due to the war. Whereas Dickson stood just 5-foot-10 and 157 pounds, the Mississippi native Ferriss was 6-foot-2 and 208 pounds and was coming off a 25-6 season with a 3.25 ERA.

Dickson received a rough greeting in the first inning as Wally Moses and Johnny Pesky each singled. Before Dickson could record an out, Red Sox center fielder Dom DiMaggio lifted a sacrifice fly to right field that gave Boston a 1-0 lead.

The Cardinals tied the game an inning later. Whitey Kurowski, who hit the game-winning homer that clinched St. Louis’s 1942 World Series championship, hit a leadoff double and scored when Harry Walker lined out to left field.

From there, Dickson and Ferriss maintained control behind exceptional defensive play. In the top of the fifth, Boston’s Pinky Higgins drove the ball into the left-field gap, but Cardinals center fielder Terry Moore made what the St. Louis Globe-Democrat called “one of the greatest catches ever made in World Series play,”[3] a running, backhanded grab just shy of the concrete wall. The catch was made all the more impressive by the fact that Moore was only able to play because the team trainer had numbed his left knee with what the St. Louis Star and Times called “a special ‘dope’ ointment.” Just six days later, Moore underwent surgery to remove cartilage from his knee.[4]

The Sportsman’s Park crowd hadn’t stopped cheering for Moore’s glove work when Hal Wagner hit a pop fly down the third-base line, and Kurowski made a sparkling play of his own.

In the bottom of the fifth, the Cardinals’ bats got into the action. Walker, who hit just .237 in his first year back from the war, led off with a single, and Marty Marion laid down a bunt to advance him to second. Dickson helped his own cause with an RBI double to left, and Red Schoendienst added an RBI single to give St. Louis a 3-1 lead.

Dickson, who had allowed just three hits through the first seven innings, finally appeared to tire in the eighth. Pinch-hitter Rip Russell singled to lead off the inning. Another pinch-hitter, George Metkovich, followed with a double. With Harry Brecheen available in the bullpen, Cardinals manager Eddie Dyer suddenly had a decision to make.

“The toughest first guess I’ve had in my entire life,” he said.[5]

Nonetheless, he chose to bring Brecheen into the game, a decision that dismayed Dickson.

“Dickson … gave the impression of being on the verge of tears when Eddie Dyer told him he had better have help,” the Associated Press reported. “You could see the gritty little guy pleading to be allowed to remain out there.”[6]

At first, it appeared that Brecheen might escape unscathed, as he struck out Moses and got Pesky to fly out to right. With two outs, however, DiMaggio doubled to right to tie the game. Even as he evened the score, DiMaggio pulled up at second base with a leg injury. He was replaced by Leon Culberson.

One batter later, Cardinals catcher Joe Garagiola left the game with an injury of his own when Ted Williams hit a foul tip that broke the rookie’s finger. When Garagiola entered the Cardinals’ clubhouse, he was accompanied by pitcher Johnny Beazley, who guided Garagiola to the trainer’s room, then stopped to shake Dickson’s hand.

“What for?” Dickson said. “I didn’t do any good.”

“You did all right,” Beazley answered. “Sure, you did all right.”[7]

Nonetheless, Dickson quickly changed his clothes and left the stadium before the game ended.[8]

With the score tied 3-3 in the bottom of the eighth, Slaughter led off with a single to center field. Kurowski tried to sacrifice him to second base, but instead bunted a pop-up to the pitcher. Del Rice flied out to left for the second out, bringing Walker to the plate with two outs and Slaughter still on first.

Sid Keener of the St. Louis Star and Times described the scene:

(Walker) flashed the hit-and-run to Slaughter, Enos was moving, and Harry lined a terrific drive out to left center, where it was fielded by Leon Culberson, replacement for DiMaggio. Culberson threw to Pesky in shallow center, and what next? Slaughter turned second base, approaching third base at full speed, and was hell-bent for home!

Walker, also going at full power, moved for second, and Pesky, taking the throw-in, hesitated about what was going on – whether to try for Walker, and where was Slaughter? Where was Enos? He passed third en route to the plate as Pesky emerged from his slumber to become the “Goat of the Series.” He finally threw to the plate, but a looping toss with no oomph behind it, and there was Slaughter sliding home ahead of the relay.[9]

In the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, J. Roy Stockton wrote that the Cardinals fans who had packed Sportsman’s Park initially reacted with “a roar of anger as Gonzalez waved Slaughter toward the plate. Enos was going to be a dead duck.”[10]

Whereas Keener believed that Pesky suffered a moment of indecision between throwing home or to second base, Stockton attributed Pesky’s delay on the relay throw to surprise that Slaughter was even attempting to score:

“In that moment of surprise, Pesky hesitated,” Stockton wrote. “He had dropped his arms and was moving in to take charge of a situation he thought would include Slaughter on third base. And before he could readjust himself, before he could cock his arm, Slaughter had the advantage.

“In his surprise, Pesky didn’t put enough on his throw, the ball sagged on its way to the plate, and the hard-running Slaughter, sliding the last 20 feet, skidded over the plate with the run that made the Redbirds champions once more. That’s Cardinal baseball, whether you like it or not, and apparently the fans like it.”[11]

More than half a century later, a Society for American Baseball Research article on the play offered even more possibilities that contributed to Slaughter’s success in reaching home, including Culberson not being shaded enough to left field, Pesky’s eyes struggling to adjust to the shadows surrounding home plate, and a lack of communication from Pesky’s infield teammates.[12]

Regardless of the cause, the Red Sox suddenly found themselves entering the top of the ninth with their season on the line. With Brecheen still in the game, Rudy York and Bobby Doerr each singled to lead off the inning.

“A base hit, and they’d tie it!” Keener dramatically wrote in the Star and Times. “A long one, and they’d ruin everything – Brecheen, the Cardinals, the National League, our entire municipality.”[13]

Once again, however, the St. Louis defense came through. Higgins laid down a sacrifice bunt, but Kurowski pounced on it and threw out Doerr at second base. Brecheen got Roy Partee to pop up to Stan Musial at first base for the second out.

Down to their final at-bat, the Red Sox called on pinch-hitter Tom McBride. McBride hit a ground ball to Schoendienst at second base, and for a moment, the 23-year-old bobbled the ball before finally gathering it against his body and throwing the ball to Marion at second for the force-out and the championship.

“It was a screwy, curving ball,” Schoendienst said. “It hit me here on the right wrist. I thought it got away, but it rolled up my forearm. Then I clamped my arm over it, up here under the shoulder, in time to grab the ball and make the play.”[14]

Brecheen’s win was his third of the series, making him the first lefthander in major league history to accomplish the feat. For each of the Cardinals, the win meant extra World Series bonuses, as the winners received $3,736 per player and the defeated Red Sox received $2,094 apiece.[15] Total receipts for the series were $1,052,900.[16]

In a dressing room crowded with newspapermen, photographers, and well-wishers, the Cardinals passed around celebratory beer.[17]

The mood was far more glum in the visitor’s clubhouse, where Pesky threw his glove against a locker, muttering angrily to himself.[18] According to a Boston Globe account of the scene, the shortstop wasn’t the only one who blamed him for the loss.

“I’m the goat. It’s my fault. I’m to blame.” Everyone in the room could hear Johnny Pesky, who stood small, drawn, forlorn before his locker. Nobody paid any attention to him.

“I had the ball in my hand. I hesitated and gave Slaughter six steps. When I saw him, I couldn’t have thrown him out with a .22,” insisted the Red Sox shortstop. Nobody paid any attention to him.

“I couldn’t hear anybody. There was too much yelling. It looked like an ordinary single. I thought he’d hold up at third so late in the game.”

Somebody finally said, “Sit down, Johnny.”

And someone else added, “Yeah, give us a rest.”[19]

Williams, who hit .342 with 38 homers and 123 RBIs on his way to AL MVP honors, wasn’t immune from criticism in the wake of Boston’s disappointing loss. Williams went just 5-for-25 (.200) with one RBI in the World Series. All five of his hits were singles.

“The flop of the series was Ted Williams,” wrote Robert L. Burnes in the St. Louis Globe-Democrat. “When you add it all up, you come back to the same conclusion: that the Red Sox were beaten because the man around whom the entire team revolved all year, outfielder Williams, was a flop.[20]

“I must have been physically tired,” Williams said. “I wanted to hit. Their pitchers didn’t fool me, but I was just hitting the ball off-center. You never saw me hit so many pop flies. I can’t explain it, but I know that if you see me at Sarasota at all next spring, you won’t see me early.”[21]

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[1] Whiteney Martin (Associated Press), “Slaughter Run Like Paul Revere’s Ride,” Boston Globe, October 16, 1946.

[2] Joseph Wancho, “Enos Slaughter,” Society for American Baseball Research, https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/enos-slaughter/.

[3] Martin J. Haley, “Brilliant Defense Highlight of Cards’ Victory,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, October 16, 1946.

[4] W. Vernon Tietjen, “Step Right Up, Folks, And Pick Your Series Hero – Cardinals Have Them By The Dozens,” St. Louis Star and Times, October 16, 1946.

[5] Sid C. Keener, “‘We Out-Gamed ‘Em,’ Shout Cards After Winning World Series,” St. Louis Star and Times, October 16, 1946.

[6] Whiteney Martin (Associated Press), “Slaughter Run Like Paul Revere’s Ride,” Boston Globe, October 16, 1946.

[7] “Cards Cut Up Like Happy Kids After Kayo of Bosox,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, October 16, 1946.

[8] “Cards Cut Up Like Happy Kids After Kayo of Bosox,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, October 16, 1946.

[9] Sid C. Keener, “‘We Out-Gamed ‘Em,’ Shout Cards After Winning World Series,” St. Louis Star and Times, October 16, 1946.

[10] J. Roy Stockton, “Sixth World Title Another Chapter in Legend of Cardinal Daring,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 16, 1946.

[11] J. Roy Stockton, “Sixth World Title Another Chapter in Legend of Cardinal Daring,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 16, 1946.

[12] Joseph Wancho, “Enos Slaughter,” Society for American Baseball Research, https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/enos-slaughter/.

[13] Sid C. Keener, “‘We Out-Gamed ‘Em,’ Shout Cards After Winning World Series,” St. Louis Star and Times, October 16, 1946.

[14] W. Vernon Tietjen, “Step Right Up, Folks, And Pick Your Series Hero – Cardinals Have Them By The Dozens,” St. Louis Star and Times, October 16, 1946.

[15] Selwyn Pepper, “Cards Win World Championship – Fans Wildly Delirious As Home Team Takes Final Series Contest,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 15, 1946.

[16] Martin J. Haley, “Brilliant Defense Highlight of Cards’ Victory,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, October 16, 1946.

[17] “Cards Cut Up Like Happy Kids After Kayo of Bosox,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, October 16, 1946.

[18] Charles Einstein, “Williams, Downhearted, Sums Up Series: ‘There’s Nothing To Say,’” St. Louis Star and Times, October 16, 1946.

[19] Harod Kaese, “Why Did Sox Lose? Series Inexperience, Soft Pennant Race and Williams’ Slump,” Boston Globe, October 16, 1946.

[20] Robert L. Burnes, “The Bench Warmer,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, October 16, 1946.

[21] Harod Kaese, “Why Did Sox Lose? Series Inexperience, Soft Pennant Race and Williams’ Slump,” Boston Globe, October 16, 1946.

The post Enos Slaughter: How his mad dash won the 1946 World Series first appeared on STLRedbirds.com.

Just two and a half months earlier, the Cardinals traded Eddie Erautt and Dick Sisler, agreed to option two more players to the Padres, and paid $100,000 to the San Diego Padres of the Pacific Coast League for the 6-foot-5, 27-year-old Alston. In 1953, just his second season of professional baseball, the 27-year-old from Greensboro, North Carolina, hit .297 with 23 home runs and 101 RBIs for San Diego.

The $100,000 price represented one of the highest sums ever paid for the rights to a black player,[1] and the Cardinals spared no expense in announcing the deal. Cardinals president August A. Busch, executive vice president John L. Wilson, and members of the board of directors Albert von Gontard and Anthony A. Buford all were on hand for the announcement in Los Angeles.[2]

“I’m really delighted – I still can’t believe it’s true,” Alston said. “I have been hoping that it would happen, hoping and waiting, and now it’s a wonderful feeling to know the dream has come true.”[3]

“We took the viewpoint from the very beginning that we wanted the finest players we could get, that there would be no barriers in terms of race, religion, or anything of that sort,” Busch said. “Alston now has as good a chance as anyone else to make the team as a regular. He’s up against some pretty stiff competition, but we hope he’ll make it.”[4]

Alston made the Cardinals’ opening-day lineup, batting sixth and playing first base. It proved to be a rough day from the outset, however. Cubs leadoff hitter Bob Talbot led off the game with a foul ball that Alston misplayed. An inning later, in his first career at-bat, Alton flied out to Cubs first baseman Dee Fondy on his way to an 0-for-4 day.

Four days later, in the second game of his career, Alston hit a solo home run off Jim Brosnan. He followed that blast the next day with a pinch-hit, three-run homer off Jim Davis in the seventh inning of a 6-4 win.

By May 12, Alston was batting .329, but as National League pitchers began to recognize the holes in his swing, Alston’s average and power numbers evaporated. In late June, he was optioned to Triple-A Rochester for the remainder of the season.

Though Alston appeared in three more major-league seasons, he totaled just 25 games the remainder of his career.

“He just didn’t have the experience he needed to play at the major-league level,” Red Schoendienst said. “He was a good guy and he worked hard and tried to learn everything possible, but the ability just wasn’t there.”[5]

Pitcher Brooks Lawrence, who became the second black player in Cardinals history later that summer, roomed with Alston and said that the first baseman struggled with the pressure of living up to the $100,000 purchase price.

“I would wake up some nights and hear him praying,” Lawrence said. “He’d be saying, ‘I can hit. I know I can hit.’ And he’d go out the next day and wouldn’t hit anything.”[6]

Alston later reported that he began hearing voices during his first season in St. Louis, and he battled mental health issues the rest of his life.[7] In 1957, his final season with the major-league team, Alston suffered from weakness and lost 15 pounds. The team sent him to a doctor, who had Alston placed in a hospital with what was termed a “nervous condition.”[8]

Alston did not return to baseball after the 1957 season, and in September 1958 he used kerosene to burn down the New Goshen Methodist Church in Greensboro, North Carolina. He was arrested and found mentally incompetent to stand trial; the psychiatrist who examined him testified that Alston was schizophrenic.[9]

Alston spent the next eight years in a state mental institution. When he was released in 1967, he set fire to his apartment and was recommitted. He was released again in 1969 and continued to receive mental health care until his passing in 1993.

Moon, another rookie making his major league debut for the Cardinals in April 1954, enjoyed a far happier career. From small-town Bay, Arkansas, Moon played college baseball at Texas A&M before signing with the Cardinals. Despite an $18,000 offer from the Tigers and another offer from the Yankees, Moon chose to sign with the St. Louis as a 20-year-old after his father reviewed the Cardinals’ minor-league rosters and saw a dearth of left-handed-hitting outfielders.[10]

In 1953, Moon hit .308 with 12 homers and 61 RBIs for Triple-A Rochester. As he prepared for training camp the following spring, he and his wife agreed that if he didn’t make the major-league roster, he would use his degree from Texas A&M to become a teacher and coach. It looked as though that might be Moon’s destiny until Eddie Stanky called him into his office on April 11 and told him that the Cardinals had just traded Enos Slaughter.

“You’re taking his place on the team,” Stanky said.[11]

Two days later, Moon was playing center field and batting second in the Cardinals’ lineup, batting directly ahead of Schoendienst and Stan Musial. In the bottom of the first, Moon stepped to the plate against left-hander Paul Minner. The 17,000 Busch Stadium fans, still angry about the Slaughter trade, took out their anger on the 24-year-old Moon.

“What should have been one of the best days of my life, April 13, 1954, was turning out to be one of the worst,” Moon wrote in 2010. “As I stepped to the plate for my first major-league at-bat in the home half of the first inning of the first game of the new season, I was greeted with a torrent of verbal castigation and denunciation from seemingly every corner of the park.”[12]

Before the game, Musial told Moon to pay no attention to the sudden attention.

“There’s only one person with whom your performance has to measure up,” Musial said, “and that person is you.”[13]

That was easier said than done. After Minner greeted Moon with two consecutive balls, a fan shouted, “Take the bat off your shoulder!”[14]

Moon planned to, especially given his hunch that Minner, behind in the count, would throw him a fastball. Minner did, and Moon launched a solo home run over the right-field wall. With the blast, Moon became the second Cardinal to hit a home run in his first career at-bat, joining Eddie Morgan, who accomplished the feat against Lon Warneke in 1936.[15]

Though the Cardinals lost the game 13-4, Moon added a sacrifice fly in the eighth inning to finish with two RBIs in the game. It was just the beginning of a season in which Moon hit .304 with 12 homers, 76 RBIs and 18 stolen bases. At season’s end, he was named the National League Rookie of the Year.

“From that afternoon forward, St. Louis fans held me in much higher esteem, a condition, I’m pleased to report, which remains to this day,” Moon wrote.[16]

Moon played five seasons in St. Louis, compiling a .291 batting average, 78 home runs, and 331 RBIs. In 1957, he hit a career-high 24 homers and was named to his first career All-Star Game. Following the 1958 season, he and Phil Paine were traded to the Dodgers for Gino Cimoli.

Moon played the final seven seasons of his career with the Dodgers, where his home runs over the short right-field wall were known as “Moon shots.” In his first season in Los Angeles, he hit .302 with 19 homers, 74 RBIs, and a league-high 11 triples. He placed fourth in the National League MVP voting behind Ernie Banks, Eddie Mathews, and Hank Aaron.

After the 1965 season, he retired with a .289 batting average, 142 home runs, and 661 RBIs over his 12-year career.

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[1] Martin J. Haley, “Cards Pay Over $100,000 for Negro Coast Star,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, January 27, 1954.

[2] Martin J. Haley, “Cards Pay Over $100,000 for Negro Coast Star,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, January 27, 1954.

[3] Edward A. Harris, “Cards Give $100,000 and 4 Players for Negro First Sacker,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 27, 1954.

[4] Edward A. Harris, “Cards Give $100,000 and 4 Players for Negro First Sacker,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 27, 1954.

[5] Peter Golenbock (2011), The Spirit of St. Louis: A History of the St. Louis Cardinals and Browns, New York: HarperCollins E-books, Page 407.

[6] Peter Golenbock (2011), The Spirit of St. Louis: A History of the St. Louis Cardinals and Browns, New York: HarperCollins E-books, Page 413.

[7] Warren Corbett, “Tom Alston,” Society for American Baseball Research, https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/tom-alston/.

[8] “Tom Alston Drops 15 Pounds, Sent to Hospital for Checkup,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, May 21, 1957.

[9] Warren Corbett, “Tom Alston,” Society for American Baseball Research, https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/tom-alston/.

[10] Wally Moon with Tim Gregg (2010), Moon Shots: Reflections on a Baseball Life, Rhesa Moon Enterprises, Pages 49-50.

[11] Wally Moon with Tim Gregg (2010), Moon Shots: Reflections on a Baseball Life, Rhesa Moon Enterprises, Page 4.

[12] Wally Moon with Tim Gregg (2010), Moon Shots: Reflections on a Baseball Life, Rhesa Moon Enterprises, Page 1.

[13] Wally Moon with Tim Gregg (2010), Moon Shots: Reflections on a Baseball Life, Rhesa Moon Enterprises, Page 7.

[14] Wally Moon with Tim Gregg (2010), Moon Shots: Reflections on a Baseball Life, Rhesa Moon Enterprises, Page 8.

[15] Bob Broeg, “Unruly Chicago Guests Break Up Cards’ Housewarming Party,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 14, 1954.

[16] Wally Moon with Tim Gregg (2010), Moon Shots: Reflections on a Baseball Life, Rhesa Moon Enterprises, Page 11.

The post Tom Alston, Wally Moon make history in their debuts: April 13, 1954 first appeared on STLRedbirds.com.

The 27-year-old from Donora, Pennsylvania, led the league in batting average (.376), hits (230), doubles (46), triples (18), RBIs (131), on-base percentage (.450), slugging percentage (.702), OPS (1.152), and total bases (429). With 39 home runs, Musial was one homer shy of tying the Pirates’ Ralph Kiner and the Giants’ Johnny Mize for the league lead.

He recorded hits in 121 of his 155 games that season, including four games in which he posted five hits apiece. Only Ty Cobb (1922), Tony Gwynn (1993), and Ichiro Suzuki (2004) had as many five-hit games in a single season.^[1]

In five games that season, Musial finished with four RBIs. Four of those games came against the Reds, against whom he batted .379 with six homers and 27 RBIs in 87 at-bats. Incredibly, his batting average against the Reds was relatively pedestrian compared to his success against the Braves (.443 in 88 at-bats).

For the season, he hit .437 with runners in scoring position and .426 with runners in scoring position and two outs. He was particularly effective against left-handed pitchers, against whom he hit .416, and he batted .415 on the road.

On December 2, 1948, the Baseball Writers Association of America recognized Musial’s outstanding season with his third career National League MVP Award, making him the first player in National League history to win the award three times. With his latest accolade, Musial had won the MVP Award three times in his first six full seasons in the majors (he missed the 1945 campaign due to his service in the Navy).

“To the writers this year there was no more question about Musial’s superiority in the National League than there had been earlier about the naming of Shortstop Lou Boudreau the most valuable player in the American League,” wrote the St. Louis Star and Times. “Stan’s record, like Boudreau’s, simply left no room for argument.”^[2]

Musial received 18 of 24 first-place votes. With four second-place votes and one third- and fourth-place ballot apiece, Musial received 303 total points.

“I heard about it yesterday on my way down to Rolla to hunt some quail,” Musial said. “I thought I had a pretty good chance, because I had a pretty good year, but it looked to me like Johnny Sain would probably get it. But I’m very happy about the award – it’s quite a distinction for any player.”^[3]

Sain, who led the league with 24 wins to go along with a 2.60 ERA over 314 2/3 innings, placed second with five first-place votes and 223 points. Braves shortstop Al Dark, who hit .322 for the season, received one first-place vote and finished third in the balloting with 174 points.

“Musial, of course, was the batting star of the season,” wrote Hy Hurwitz of the Boston Globe. “Doubtless the fact that Stan was an everyday performer influenced a majority of the voters, although the fans in this area would have deluged the voting machines with Sain selections if given an opportunity.”^[4]

Behind Giants slugger Sid Gordon, who clobbered 30 homers and drove in 107 RBIs, Cardinals pitcher Harry Brecheen placed fifth. A left-hander from Broken Bow, Oklahoma, Brecheen went 20-7 and led the league with a 2.24 ERA and 149 strikeouts. Cardinals outfielder Enos Slaughter tied with Kiner for seventh place after batting .321 with 11 homers and 90 RBIs.

In the award’s 18-year history, Cardinals had taken home the Kenesaw Mountain Landis Plaque eight times. In addition to Musial’s three, Cardinals MVP winners included Frankie Frisch in 1931, Dizzy Dean in 1934, Joe Medwick in 1937, Mort Cooper in 1942, and Marty Marion in 1944.

Though Musial remained an elite player for more than a decade, 1948 proved the final MVP recognition of his career. In 1949, 1950, and 1951 he placed second in the voting. From 1952 through 1956, he placed in the top 10, then placed second again in 1957.

By the time he retired following the 1963 season, Musial had collected 3,630 hits, won seven batting titles, and earned 24 all-star game selections. He was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility in 1969.

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[1] Craig Muder, “Musial’s historic 1948 season nets him third NL MVP,” National Baseball Hall of Fame, https://baseballhall.org/discover/inside-pitch/stan-musials-historic-1948-season-nets-him-third-nl-mvp.

[2] “Musial Named Most Valuable N.L. Player For Third Time,” St. Louis Star and Times, December 2, 1948.

[3] “Stan ‘Surprised,’” St. Louis Star and Times, December 2, 1948.

[4] Hy Hurwitz, “Musial ‘Most Valuable’ in National League; Sain, Dark Runners-Up,” Boston Globe, December 2, 1948.

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The native of Germantown, Illinois, had never been one for boasting, but as he shagged fly balls in the Comiskey Park outfield alongside his fellow 1950 National League All-Stars, something came over him, and he pointed to Comiskey Park’s right-field bleachers.

“I’m going to hit one right up there, in the upper deck,” he told his teammates, including Dick Sisler, Duke Snider, and Walker Cooper.[1]

In his 1998 autobiography, Schoendienst wrote, “I don’t know why I said that. It just came out. I wasn’t a home run hitter, and the last thing I should be trying to do in an All-Star Game is hit a home run.”

While 1950 marked Schoendienst’s fourth All-Star selection, the six-year veteran had hit just 14 home runs for his career, including three during the first half of the season. As a result, Schoendienst’s teammates laughed good-naturedly and thought little of his prediction. Schoendienst and Sisler even bet a Coca-Cola on who would get the longest hit – a bet Schoendienst was sure he had lost when Sisler entered the game in the sixth inning and singled.[2]

While Schoendienst opened the game on the bench, the National League starting lineup included three of his Cardinals teammates – Stan Musial at first base, Enos Slaughter in center field, and Marty Marion at shortstop. On the mound, the Phillies’ Robin Roberts started for the National League and the Yankees’ Vic Raschi opened the game for the American League.

Dodgers manager Burt Shotton had been booed heavily by the Chicago crowd during pregame introductions after he had objected to keeping Cubs right fielder Hank Sauer, who was selected through fan voting, in the National League starting lineup. With Sauer in right, Shotton was left without a true center fielder, forcing him to play Slaughter at the position.

After the game, Shotton was asked about the long, theatrical pose he adopted as he was introduced to the fans.

“I wanted the fans to get all the booing out of their system,” he said.[3]

After a scoreless first inning, the Dodgers’ Jackie Robinson opened the second inning by smacking the first pitch to right field for a single. After watching two pitches sail off the plate, Slaughter tripled into the left-field gap to score Robinson. The next batter, Sauer, hit a sacrifice fly into right field that scored Slaughter and made the score 2-0.

The American League cut its deficit in half in the bottom of the third. Pinch hitting for Raschi, Cass Michaels led off with a ground-rule double and Phil Rizzuto followed with a bunt single. After Roberts struck out Larry Doby, George Kell hit a sacrifice fly into center field to score Michaels.

In the bottom of the fifth, the American League took a 3-2 lead off Don Newcombe. Newcombe walked Bob Lemon to lead off the inning, then struck out Rizzuto. Doby hit a ground ball up the middle that turned into a double, placing two runners in scoring position for Kell. Kell hit a sacrifice fly to score Lemon and Ted Williams hit an RBI single into right field to place the American League ahead.

That lead lasted until the top of the ninth, when Ralph Kiner hit a leadoff home run off Art Houtteman into the upper deck. With Kiner’s home run tying the score 3-3, the teams headed into the first extra innings in all-star game history.

After the National League left the bases loaded in the 11^th, Shotton inserted Schoendienst into the game in place of Slaughter, who finished the day 2-for-4 with a walk and a great play in deep center field to steal extra bases from Red Sox first baseman Walter Dropo.

In the top of the 14^th, Schoendienst stepped to the plate for the first time. His teammates had not forgotten his pregame boast.

“You going to hit it up in the right-field stands?” Cooper asked.

With Tigers left-hander Ted Gray on the mound, the switch-hitting Schoendienst knew his next at-bat would come right-handed.

“No,” he said. “Left field now.”[4]

Incredibly, Schoendienst lived up to his word, launching the ball into the left-field stands.

“I don’t know if the guys on the bench were as shocked as I was, but they didn’t have to make it around the bases without falling down laughing,” Schoendienst wrote. “When I did make it back to the dugout, the guys let me have it.”[5]

After the game, Gray described the pitch as a “low fast one,”[6] but Schoendienst described it differently.

“I guess it was a double-knuckle ball,” he joked. “The pitch didn’t have much to it because I pulled it.”[7]

Ewell Blackwell pitched the ninth inning, ending the game when Joe DiMaggio hit into a 5-4-3 double play.

After the game, Schoendienst had barely taken off his uniform when the clubhouse attendant approached and told him that a fan claimed to have caught his home run ball and wanted to know if Schoendienst wanted it in exchange for an autographed ball.

“Sure,” Schoendienst replied, and the exchange was made. However, “Before I had showered and dressed, five other guys knocked on the door and said they also had my home run ball.”[8]

Each time, the cordial Schoendienst went ahead and made the exchange. Which of the six balls did he keep?

“The first one,” he said.[9]

Schoendienst would play in 10 All-Star games, with his final appearance coming in 1957. His 1950 blast marked the only All-Star Game home run of his career.

Schoendienst was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1989.

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[1] Red Schoendienst with Rob Rains (1998), “Red: A Baseball Life,” Sports Publishing, Champaign, Ill., 63.

[2] Red Schoendienst with Rob Rains (1998), “Red: A Baseball Life,” Sports Publishing, Champaign, Ill., 63.

[3] Edward Prell, “Schoendienst Calm, Shotton Leads Cheers,” Chicago Tribune, July 12, 1950: Page F3.

[4] Red Schoendienst with Rob Rains (1998), “Red: A Baseball Life,” Sports Publishing, Champaign, Ill., 64.

[5] Red Schoendienst with Rob Rains (1998), “Red: A Baseball Life,” Sports Publishing, Champaign, Ill., 64.

[6] Martin J. Haley, “Schoendienst’s home run in 14^th wins for N.L., 4-3,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, July 12, 1950: Page 19.

[7] Martin J. Haley, “Schoendienst’s home run in 14^th wins for N.L., 4-3,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, July 12, 1950: Page 19.

[8] Earl Lawson, “Six guys ‘caught’ Red’s All Star winning homer,” Cincinnati Post, July 18, 1974.

[9] Earl Lawson, “Six guys ‘caught’ Red’s All Star winning homer,” Cincinnati Post, July 18, 1974.

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